Illinois ballot news
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| Voters to settle 270-plus issues
There’s a little something for every voter with something to say this election, from recall and constitutional rewrites to alcohol sales and higher local taxes. Those are among more than 270 ballot questions voters throughout the state will see Nov. 4 when they go to the polls, according to a tally by the State Board of Elections. That’s below the referendum totals for other general elections in the past decade, the board says. It could be the product of fewer questions about local tax and fee increases in a slowing economy.[1]
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| Right of recall dies in Illinois senate
The Illinois state senate killed a measure allowing for recall of statewide elected officials on May 1 when it voted 33-19 for the proposed constitutional amendment. It needed 36 votes to pass.[2] The recall amendment was aimed at Gov. Blagojevich, and had earlier been approved by the Illinois House in a 73-33 vote.[3]
The last time Illinois voters had a chance to vote on a statewide ballot measure was in 1998.
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| Illinois Democracy Project halted
Despite a strong backing of support from citizens the petition drive for the Show Us Amendment by the Illinois Democracy Project has been canceled.
The Show Us Amendment was a proposed addition to the state constitution; it would have required a 21-day period for all non-emergency bills where no amendments were made before enacting a vote, allowing for public and media review of any legislation.
On Feb. 7, Jim Broadway, chairman of the Illinois Democracy Project, announced the campaign would not be able to collect 350,000 required signatures by April. Broadway said it was unrealistic to expect to collect 30,000 signatures a week in order to qualify the initiative for the ballot.[4]
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Illinois and direct democracy
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Statewide, Illinois enjoys three of the available seven forms of direct democracy. If the Illinois legislature places a constitutional amendment or a state statute on the statewide ballot, voters can ratify or reject it. Illinois residents can also petition a measure directly onto the ballot, but the process is so cumbersome and loaded with pitfalls that only ballot measure has appeared on the state's ballot through petition, in 1980.
The State of Illinois is a state of the United States of America and the 21st state admitted to the Union. Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest and the fifth most populous in the nation, and has a large and cosmopolitan population. Its balance of vast suburbs and the great metropolis of Chicago in the northeast, rural areas, small industrial cities, and renowned agricultural productivity in central and western Illinois, and the coal mines of the south give it a highly diverse economic base. Its central location, connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River, made it a transportation hub for 150 years. It is this mixture of factory and farm, of urban and rural, that makes Illinois a microcosm of the United States.
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Illinois ballot basics
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| Ballot measures and recalls
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| Laws and history
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| Vote fraud
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| Key government offices
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| Illinois counties
Adams, Lexander, Bond, Boone, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Cook, Crawford, Cumberland, DeKalb, De Witt, Douglas, DuPage, Edgar, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Greene, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Johnson, Kane, Kanakee, Kendall, Knox, LaSalle, Lake, Lawrence, Lee, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, McHenry, McLean, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Massac, Menard, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Ogle, Peoria, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Richalnd, Rock Island, St. Clair, Saline, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Stephenson, Tazewell, Union, Vermilion, Wabash, Warren, Washington, Wayne, White, Whiteside, Will, Williamson, Winnebago, Woodford
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